T. Boone Pickens Plan to Be Dependant On Natural Gas
July 11th, 2008 by Damon Clifford
If you’ve seen T. Boone Pickens plan that he laid out earlier this week, then you have to be excited that he’s doing something to promote more alternative energy, specifically wind power, so we’re not dependent on foreign oil.
I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil.
Pickens want’s to replace the 22% of energy that we use natural gas in our overall energy consumption and replace it with wind power. Pickens is already planning the world’s largest wind farm in Pampa, TX. Wind energy could supply 20 percent or more of the nation’s power.
Fueling these plants with wind power would then free up the natural gas historically used to power them, and would mean that natural gas could replace foreign oil as fuel for motor vehicles, he said.
As many people know, T. Boone Pickens has made his fortune in the oil and gas industry. He still has it in his best interest to sell oil and gas. This is why he wants to take the 22% of natural gas that would be removed out of the overall energy consumption and put it into transportation fuel. This is where his plan is wrong.
We do not want to replace one non-sustainable energy source with another. If we did, we would eventually have the same problems with natural gas that we have with oil today. Even though natural gas is less expensive than gasoline or diesel now, there would be a rise in demand pushing prices higher and we would be still incur times of shortages, price spikes, and all the other forces of economics.
From the Pickens website about the plan:
According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.
That’s still not good enough. With more vehicles on the road every year, we need vehicles that are emissions free.
To put his plan in place, we would have to overhaul the infrastructure at gas stations so they could supply natural gas to vehicles. At this large of an expense and time, it would be much more wise to replace the pumps with electric outlets designed for electric cars to recharge.
I admire T. Boone Pickens and what he has done throughout his life. I appreciate how he is trying to position himself as “the man” to go through for anything in regards to energy and he has invested millions of dollars into alternative energy. It’s capitalism at it’s best, and I love it. But his plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil is not the best one, but it’s getting people to talk about the issues and I think that’s great.
What we need to do is take the best part of his plan, which is building the wind farms to produce electricity for the overall energy consumption, and restructure the natural gas plan on how to build an infrastructure to provide electricity for plug in hybrids and electric vehicles. Since wind can only produce so much energy, we would need to get this extra energy for the vehicles from other alternative sources such as solar energy.
Pickens Plan
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July 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
You have not fully understood the impetus behind Pickens’ plan to use natural gas in our vehicles. The impetus is the fact that our economy is losing $700 billion annually in foreign oil imports that is growing as the price of oil rises. This loss of American assets is leading the US towards an economic catastrophe.
Pickens believes that with our vast supply of untapped natural gas resources, we can replace the oil used in transportation with natural gas in a less costly and FASTER manner than other alternatives and thereby offset the dollars exported to foreign oil and gasoline producers. It comes down to a matter of time due to the current recession that is exacerbating the economic effects of oil imports.
Waiting for your ideal solution to be developed will not quickly offset the economic downturn that is already accelerating. So, time is of the essence! Pun intended.
Pickens believes his plan will provide additional time for alternatives to be developed that may actually supplant his natural gas solution. He supports the development of all energy alternatives but the current plan is the preferred solution due to the rapidity with which it can be implemented to reduce foreign oil imports.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Thanks for the comment John.
I think that Pickens has a great plan. However, we do not want to spend the time and money developing vehicles that run on natural gas and overhauling the infrastructure at stations across America just to have to do it again in 20 years. Even Pickens himself says it would take 10 years to complete his plan. Even though natural gas is America’s top resource, many people believe that it’s about to peak as well. You have to remember when natural gas was $1-$2/MMBTU, they used to set it on fire and let it burn because they couldn’t sell it. If natural gas was depleted in 20 years, we would be stuck in the same position we are today and have to invest more time and money into setting up a new/different infrastructure.
I’m not against using natural gas. I believe that natural gas can be used to produce the electricity for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles until we can develop sustainable energy sources to provide for the transportation energy.
That way, Pickens can still sell his natural gas and we begin to have more emission free vehicles on the road.
The technology for electric vehicles is here. There are many companies in California (and around the world) that already have working vehicles that are all electric or electric hybrids. Check out some of the companies that I’ve covered for the Auto X PRIZE competition.
Now, it’s just a matter of getting those vehicles mass produced. You’re starting to see companies like Mercedes and Volkswagen buy and partner with these electric car companies so they produce them for mass consumption.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
Well what about tidal power? The innovative (and controversial) UK wave hub being built on the Firth has been giving the go ahead – Energy that gets produced underwater and that can’t be seen to the naked eye must be hailed as a great achievement. As long is it does not have a negative impact in the local marine life the more of green and clean energy we can put into the Scottish Power grid is fantastic. Surely this has to be considered.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I think that tidal power has a role in the overall energy production. I believe that it is more beneficial to areas near the ocean where they can set up the generators. I wrote a post about tidal energy earlier this year.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am
With these ‘oil folks’ it seems to be trend to perpetuate the petroleum industry in any way they can and if changing some names to, say, natural gas, then why not! I guess they just haven’t gotten it yet!
October 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
His plan is (1) unrealistic as the infrastructure changes would take far longer than it would to to liberate the last of our natural gas resources, (2) pointless if it depends upon non-renewable resources for any major restructuring of our infrastructure, and (3) totally self-serving. Why is this guy – a hard-line GOP apologist – being lauded for his “innovative plan” that will benefit himself more than anyone else?
December 11th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I live in Texas and have seen them hauling some of those giant blades for their windmills- pretty cool. It shouldn’t be counted on as THE solution- I agree- but it does help. The more I read on this issue, the more convinced I am that there isn’t going to be a magic bullet for our energy woes. We are going to have to look to a combination of solutions, which includes- yes- lighter, more fuel efficient cars.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:33 am
In our local paper it had a headline –
Will falling wind speed curb turbine plans?
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/648631
Wind speed are getting less because of Global warming. I would have thought the opposite